Getting to know Indonesian batik
In the long river of history, the image of Hanuman has changed time and again—whether in graphic motifs or in puppets. For an exhibit on Indonesian textiles in 2018, the Children’s Creative Center brought together a series of Hanuman representations from batiks in the National Palace Museum collection. It then took those images of Indonesian art, which UNESCO has recognized as part of the world’s “intangible cultural heritage,” and incorporated them into children’s toys.
From a jigsaw puzzle of motifs taken from a batik shawl in the museum’s collection featuring images of a puppet shadow play, children gain an introduction to the shadow puppetry that has deep historical roots in Indonesian culture. The images are taken from the Mahabarata, an Indian epic story that is as famous in Indonesia as the Ramayama. The young visitors also gain an appreciation for many-colored batiks, which haven’t lost their vibrancy after many years and many washings.
On the other side of the room, there is a big jigsaw puzzle featuring traditional motifs found on Han Chinese table skirts used during harvest festivals. In earlier times, table skirts were often embroidered. Beginning in the 20th century ethnic Chinese Indonesians adapted to local customs and began to use batik. A batik table skirt decorated with a lion on a red background, which is the source of motifs for the jigsaw puzzle, is an example of Indonesian and Chinese cultural fusion.
Indonesian cultural motifs are numerous and varied. Children can apply stamps and color with crayons to create individualized batik patterns. And they can apply their color choices to Indonesian clothing that they can “try on” in front of an augmented-reality mirror. They can even use a remote control device to play an angklung, a traditional Indonesian instrument of bamboo tubes. By having fun at play they learn about another culture.
Another exhibition area focuses on Vietnamese food, clothing, residences, and culture. Like in the area on Indonesian textiles, here too visitors can put on traditional Vietnamese clothing to try out for themselves. Wearing an ao dai dress, you can stroll along a traditional Vietnamese street featuring a zongzi shop, a pastry shop, a drum store, and a street stall proprietor kneading dough.
This augmented reality mirror has facial recognition technology. It first takes a photo, then processes it so that children can see how they would look wearing a sarong.